Author: Maria Runs

Lush convert

Hey all.

I just realised that this is my first post of 2012- Olympic year woohoo!

Hope you all had a good new year’s eve- I was asleep by 11 I think (but don’t worry, even if you are not awake you still end up in the next year)- I read some Runners’ World (which is a bit annoying as I won’t be running anywhere in the near future!) and watched the fireworks the next day. Happy new year anyway!

For Christmas I was given some goodies from Lush. Now normally I never go in their shops because I find the smell so overpowering (if they are in a shopping centre or something you can smell it from shops away!), but the goodies I was given were lovely and actually did not smell too strong. I was also given a voucher so Andy took me to the shops the other day and we ventured inside one.

The shop assistants were fab- I was given some shower jelly stuff (like a tub of jelly) and they showed me what to do with it, and demonstrated some lovely skin conditioner on me (which I was sold on as I get dry skin really easily). I also wanted to look into the solid shampoos as one of my friends always raves about them- lots of pro’s as they are economical (one is the equivalent of 3 bottles of shampoo), last for ages, no preservatives, help the environment by reducing packaging, and would be good to take on holiday. There were lots of options but I chose this one– it smelled amazing plus apparently is good for shine with dark hair (and also good for receding hair but I did tell the guy I was not worried about that!). Anyway, I was looking forward to trying it out.

You wet your hair, rub the bar around your scalp a few times, then lather up. I did wonder whether it would be as easy to get to the underneath of my hair, as it is very thick (I can normally put a little shampoo on my fingertips and get it in that way) but the shampoo lathered up really well. Plus it did smell amazing- the cloves lingered especially.  They said to leave the bar to dry between washes, so I have left the tin open (I bought the tin separately but that can be re-used). I am very impressed though- I will be interested to see how long it actually lasts. A day later my hair still looks clean- sometimes products that “enhance shine” actually make it a little greasy- but this is passing in my book. I then spent ages on their website (hence all the links!) and noticed they do a solid conditioner too. Something I might try in the future.  Anyone else used these types of products at all?

I went to the GP this morning and have been signed off for another 2 weeks. Although I think that is the best for my health (I feel OK, then the paracetamol wears off and I feel really bad- still can’t walk very far or move normally, plus the worry of children bumping into me and things) it might not be the best thing for my sanity! Anyway, after I went to the GP I popped to Waitrose for some salad (feeling very guilty as I feel I should be at home- I have never been signed off before this and am not really sure what is allowed- I know that popping to the shops is not the same as a full day at work but I do feel guilty- even though I need to sit down for about half an hour to recover when I get home!) and found a few bargains.

This cute owl box (which I saw before but was £10- today it was £5 although it contained sweets (which I will take to work as they look like marshmallows) when I was hoping it would contain an owl mug)- I have already used it to put my cake decorating bits in. And some Montezuma’s truffles (peppermint white chocolate, and orange and geranium ones) for £1.25 each! Bargain! So get yourselves down to Waitrose for some post Christmas bargains. The lady in front of me was loading up on the bags of chocolate coins/ santa’s as they were something like 25p!

What do you feel you are “allowed” to do when off work? What do you do to pass the time? Have you ever used solid shampoo’s or other products similar? 

A year of highs and lows

Evening all

Happy New Year first of all.

I am a fairly optimistic person,  but when I saw all the 2011 review posts I did start thinking about how this year has been for me, and the post title reflects how I feel about it.

It started on a bit of a low, because we were meant to go on holiday last Christmas over the school holidays, but because our plane got snowed on (we were actually on the plane, they de-iced it, we even saw the air safety video!) the airport got closed and our flights were cancelled. What with all the snow it was a bit tricky to get up to much, although we did have a lovely weekend over new years in Bath.

But it was building up to something very exciting- our (mine and Andy’s) first marathon! I turned 30 in May and as a way of celebrating (?) we signed up for it. Even though I had already had my birthday by then it was a sort of present to myself!  To help with motivation I signed up to marathon talk’s spring motivation challenges, plus the magic mile challenge later in the year- all brilliant so check them out! The training was really hard (up until then I had run 2 half marathons in the previous year, but my training runs had not gone over 12 miles), but I did enjoy the achievement of it all. I also leant to like ice baths, and had my first sports massages! My birthday weekend was spent in Derbyshire so we could complete a 20 mile organised training run. Anyone who ever worried about being the last person in a race, read my report. It is not that bad!

I did it! I ran 20 miles and got a t-shirt to prove it! 🙂

And we even went on a nice walk the same evening!

One of the “lows” was that this year I kept on being ill- I had a few UTI’s (having never had them before), including one days before the Stockholm marathon.  But despite being on antibiotics I felt OK so went for it. The race was a struggle, but I felt totally elated when I finished.

Totally all about the medals here! Yes, I was slow, but I ran the entire way, and finished under the cut off and nothing can ever take that away from me!

Just about managing to stand up straight after nearly 5 1/2 hours of running!

A high note before that was our trip to Italy- two of our friends got married out there and we were lucky enough to be invited- we spent  lovely few days out there (of course sampling lots of the local gelato!).

We did share it by the way, this was a comedy photo in which Andy wanted to see how much ice cream I could get on the scoop at once! 🙂

So here is a serious photo as we spent a day in Venice after the wedding and even bumped into the bride and groom on their honeymoon- what are the chances??

Another fantastic high was our summer holiday- we managed to re-book most of the things from our cancelled Christmas holiday, and had an awesome time, especially at Discovery Cove (I still need to put some of those pics on here).

Key West at sunset was one of the many highlights. 

Plus a weekend of girly fun in Bristol.

I can’t take credit for this photo- my friend took it but I just love the colours in it.

After the marathon I kept up running, and we booked a few shorter races in the Autumn. My absolute favourite run was the one in Sherwood Forest.

Running the Great South Run was brilliant as I raised so much for charity (thanks to everyone who sponsored me), although it was not the best race experience! On the plus side a post race lunch (enjoyed in the 3 hour car park queue) of a cinnamon roll and soya chai latte was pretty good!

In the background you can see the 4×4 that kept trying to back into our car, and also caused some road rage later on when it pushed in front of some other cars- people get tetchy when they queue that long!

The year was meant to end on a high, as we had booked a holiday (can you tell we love our holidays?) to NYC (I really want to see the big Christmas tree), Philadelphia, Washington, Orlando and the gulf coast, but before that a big old low in the form of me being admitted to hospital came along and scuppered our plans. There is always next year, and it is so much better than I found out I was unwell here and not whilst on holiday! Look on the bright side 🙂

We have been lucky to enjoy a lovely Christmas at home with Andy’s family, and I got to see my parents more as they were away, back for 3 days, then off to New Zealand for a month (although this turned into a saga when my Dad cut his hand and severed a tendon the day they were meant to go- honestly someone does not want my family to get on holiday right now! Luckily he has not done permanent damage and managed to delay their flights by 2 days- he is doing more tennis umpiring out there but only missed a day I think) so as we were here I managed to spend a few more days with them.

I don’t tend to set goals, but initially I had in my mind that in 2012 I wanted to speed up with my running- I wanted to get some half marathon pb’s and have booked the Brighton and Silverstone Half marathons. But at the moment I don’t have my next hospital appointment until the end of January, and the operation will be some time after that, so I highly doubt I will manage either of them. But again, there is always next year!

Of course 2012 brings with it the Olympics! I can still remember when we found out that London got them (and I actually was going “oh my word I will be 31 when they come” )and it seemed years away- we got some tickets in the second chance round so that is very exciting.

So, I am hoping that in 2012 I get my health sorted, get back into running, enjoy the Olympics, and also have an awesome summer holiday to make up for the cancelled Christmas one.

What are you looking forward to next year?

Happy New Year!

How to make a frothy chai latte

Hello! I have been making the most of some of my lovely Christmas presents by attempting to make home-made chai lattes. I think I have the right technique now, just need to play around with the best teabags/ loose tea to use.

First up, boil the kettle and put your chosen teabag (as I am off caffeine at the moment I chose rooibos with vanilla, but of course to make it perfect choose a black tea chai teabag) in the cup you will end up using. Only put a little water in the cup- the teabags need boiling water to properly release the flavour.

Then heat up some milk (I used soya milk) in a smaller cup- this is probably about 250ml and it took about 1min 40 in my microwave. When the teabag has steeped enough (a couple of minutes- basically the time it takes for the milk to heat) remove it and add some flavour syrup (optional but I was excited to try it- the gingerbread syrup smells amazing). Then pour on the warm milk.

Then get out your milk frother (mine is an Aerolatte ) and froth away.

Look how frothy it goes! 🙂

Then I used on of my cookie shape things to try to make a cinnamon star on top- I think I needed to use my sugar shaker for this! Next time.

Then sit down and enjoy- mmmmmm. Not quite as sweet as a Starbucks one…

But very tasty and warming all the same.

Also, my Whittards order arrived- I had asked for a filter teapot as a Christmas present, and in the end ordered it myself as I had some codes for free delivery and 10% off.

A cool spotty teapot, some chocolate chai (Andy got this for me years ago and I love it but our local one never stocks it any more), Christmas tea and also cinnamon syrup, which I totally forgot I ordered! Hope I like it! 🙂

What are you after in the sales right now?

Also, don’t forget to enter my giveaway. If your comment does not pop up right away don’t worry- some of them were going to be approved by me first, I think just because they have links in them.

Zalando review and giveaway

Hello everyone. I trust you are all busy getting some bargains in the sales.

A while ago (back in November) I was contacted by Amy from a website called Zalando, and Amy wondered if I wanted to try out the website and then write a review for it. I agreed and decided that in the spirit of the season I would share the voucher with my readers. So I had £15 to spend, and if you keep on reading you can find out how you can win a £15 Zalando voucher too.

I had never heard of the website before (although since then I have seen them on several blogs) so I had a look around. I was really impressed- I thought it was just a sportswear retailer but it also sells clothes and beauty brands. It took me ages to decide what to buy. I was very tempted by some lovely handcream, or a scented candle (how nice does fig and grapefruit sound?).

In the end I decided to get some running gloves (which are now out of stock so I can’t link to them!). These have been on my wishlist for a while.

I was really impressed with the speed of delivery- I ordered them on the 26th in the afternoon, and got a dispatch email early on the 27th. They arrived on the 29th (today).

I was a bit worried about the size- the only size they had in stock was XS, and I think I have quite big hands for a girl. I would say that I would like to see size guides on the website, as I could see no guidance for what size I would need. I even went to the Nike website but still could not find any information (so I appreciate it would be hard for Zalando to have the size guides if the actual companies do not make them easy to find), so just went for it.

Well, they fit! Hooray! They are tight around the wrist, but they are meant to be keeping my hands super toasty so being extra snug means they will keep the cold out.

I look forward (even more so) to when I am back and healthy enough to run again, especially if I have super cool and super toasty running gloves to wear too 🙂

I was really impressed with Zalando- the website was easy to use- either by following the menus or by typing into the search boxes. You could also filter things by most popular, price, sale items and so on. The fact that delivery is free is also a massive plus. I like ordering things online, but I do get annoyed by some places who charge quite a lot for delivery. I was expecting them to be in a jiffy bag and posted through my door (which would have been fine) but they were sent via a parcel company, in a box, and had to be signed for, which is even better value considering it is free. Also they only show items in stock, which I like because it is annoying when you find something online and then find out it is out of stock. They do have size guides for the tops and things, so adding them for the gloves would really help too.

Now, I mentioned at the start that I am also hosting a giveaway! One lucky reader can win a £15 voucher for Zalando (UK entries only). Here is how you can enter (each one counts as a separate entry):

  • Comment on this post to say what you would spend your voucher on.
  • Link back to this post in a post of your own (leave a seperate comment saying you have done so).
  • Like me on facebook (again leave a seperate comment to say this).

Entries will close in one week (next Thursday) when I will be super high-tech and put all the names into a container to randomly choose the winner.

Good luck! 🙂

WIAW- not that festive

Hey all

I saw that Jenn is not very well today, but I already took the photos, so I am still joining in with WIAW. Get well soon Jenn. But first, I walked up to the shops yesterday (was glad to get some fresh air) and got myself a little bargain:

Whittards had lots of tea for £1- Andy got himself some Assam teabags and loose tea, I got myself a box of peppermint teabags, and this cute set of syrups (for coffee, but I think they could go in lattes, baking? etc)- I was looking at them online and they were £10 but out of stock- when I asked the guy told me they were £8, but they then took another 30% off so they were actually £5-something. Bargain!

Hazelnut, caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, and the best sounding one of all; gingerbread.

Right, on to WIAW.

Peas and Crayons

I chose one day last week- I am not sure what day as they all blend into one!

Breakfast:

Yes I know it looks like some kind of potato gratin- it is actually baked oatmeal (used gingerbread porridge for the oats) with sliced pear. Was much nicer than it looks!

Snack:

Dark chocolate with caramel. I prefer their coconut one, but this is nice.

Lunch:

A small tortilla with cheese and picalilli, baked for a bit, plus cucumber and hummus and clementines.

Post-walk afternoon snack:

Blurry photo!

Smoothie with frozen banana, frozen cherries, coconut milk, cocoa powder and topped with some chocolate chilli and ginger munchy seeds (which are really yummy).

Dinner:

I made a version of the mexican casserole I saw on Oh She Glows– I used quinoa instead of pasta and probably subbed a few spices. With spinach. And topped with half a chopped avocado mashed with a little lemon juice (it looks like scrambled eggs or something in the picture but it is not!).

Plus some gingerbread tea and a few leibkuchen.

I could have chosen Christmas day but I think Andy’s family would have wondered about me taking photos all day! The picalilli is something I only have at this time of year- I know you can get it all the year round but for some reason I don’t fancy it the rest of the year. My Mum always used to get mixed nuts and dates for Christmas, but they are something I have year round, when I fancy them, now. What festive (or not) things do you treat yourself to at this time of year?